How we cite our quotes: Line
Quote #7
Lysistrata: "…to begin with, we can stop people from going to the market fully armed and acting crazy."
First Old Woman: "Paphian Aphrodite be praised!"
Lysistrata: "At this very moment, all around the market, in the pottery shops and the grocery stalls, they're walking around in arms like Corybants!"
Magistrate: "I say a man's got to act like a man!" (555-559)
Here, once again, we see the Magistrate resisting a very sensible request by the women, because he sees it as a threat to his masculinity. Before, he said that he would rather die than take advice from a woman. This time around, he insists that walking around the marketplace in full military regalia is simply the proper way for a man to act. If the Magistrate were transplanted to the present day, what behavior do you think he would insist on as the way to "act like a man"?
Quote #8
Lysistrata: "Then, when we should be having fun and enjoying our bloom of youth, we sleep alone because of the campaigns. And to say no more about our own case, it pains me to think of the maidens growing old in their rooms."
Magistrate: "Men grow old too, don't they?"
Lysistrata: "That's quite a different story. When a man comes home he can quickly find a girl to marry, even if he's a graybeard. But a woman's prime is brief; if she doesn't seize it, no one wants to marry her, and she sits at home looking for good omens."
Magistrate: "But any man who can still get a hard-on—"
Lysistrata: "Why don't you just drop dead?" (591-599)
In these lines, Lysistrata calls the Magistrate out on the inequalities between men and women. The Magistrate thinks it isn't a big deal that women have to spend their youth alone; after all, growing old sucks for everyone, right? But Lysistrata points out that an old man can find a young wife, while a woman who gets past marriageable age is likely to remain lonely. Then the Magistrate starts to make some comment about men's sexual prowess, but Lysistrata cuts him off. What do you think the Magistrate was about to say?
Quote #9
Men's Chorus: "Now doesn't this behavior of theirs amount to extreme hubris?
And I do believe the situation will only get worse.
Every man with any balls must stand up to this threat!
Men's Leader: "Let's doff our shirts, because a man's got to smell like a man form the word go, and shouldn't be all wrapped up like souvlaki." (They remove their shirts.)
Men's Chorus: "Come on, Whitefeet!
We went against Leipsydrium
when we still were something;
now we've got to rejuvenate, and give wing
to our whole bodies, and slough off this old skin!" (659-670)
These lines show the Men's Chorus preparing to do battle with the Women's Chorus. For them, doing battle is all about showing their masculine prowess—as you can see from their reminiscing about their soldier days, towards the end of this passage. Why do you think they place such importance on letting their male B.O. waft out? Could this be a classic case of (as they say in the tech field) turning a bug into a feature? Putting it another way, do you think they would be so tolerant if they had to smell the women's body odor?